Alan Stewart’s UK and Ireland family history news

Chelsea Pensioner records 1760-1854

The subscription/pay-per-view site Find My Past has just added 184,650 records and 1,003,794 images to its Chelsea Pensioners collection for the period 1760-1854. This brings the total numbers of Chelsea Pensioner records and images on the site to 691,520 records and 4,200,729 images.

Find My Past says: “These records are of men pensioned out of the British Army 1760-1913. The connection with ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ is that the pensions were administered through the Royal Hospital at Chelsea.

“Remember that these records are free to search, like all the records on Find My Past, and you won’t find them anywhere else online. Even if you don’t think that any of your ancestors could have been Chelsea Pensioners, try searching the records – your ancestor may have only served in the army for a short time before they were pensioned out.

“When you’ve viewed these records you’ll realise how special they are. The records are the next best thing to looking at a photograph of your ancestor; they help you to build up a picture of your ancestor as they contain detailed descriptions of a soldier’s physical appearance and any distinguishing features, such as tattoos or scars. There are usually six or seven records for each soldier.

“We anticipate the whole collection [up to 1913] will be available by September 2011.”